IS MAX TRYING TOO HARD?
Max Verstappen is coming under increasing pressure from Red Bull bosses to change his approach after making serious mistakes in the first six grands prix of the year – two of which put him out of contention for victory.
Verstappen’s crash in final practice at the Monaco GP damaged the car badly enough to prevent him taking part in qualifying. He had to start from the back of the grid in a race team-mate Daniel Ricciardo won after being fastest in every practice and qualifying session. The Monaco incident followed other high-profile driving errors this season which have set back both his own title hopes and Red Bull’s position in the constructors’ championship.
In Australia he over-drove while racing Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, ran wide, damaged the car and then spun, finishing sixth. In Bahrain, he crashed in qualifying and retired from the race after a collision while trying to overtake Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. In China, while on the same strategy that delivered Ricciardo the race win, Verstappen ran wide while trying an opportunistic move around the outside of Hamilton in the fast Turn 7, then collided with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
In Azerbaijan Verstappen crashed in practice, and his manoeuvre just before the collision that took both Red Bulls out of the race was judged to be a contributory factor by the FIA’S stewards. In Spain he damaged his front wing in a collision with Lance Stroll’s Williams at a re-start after a Virtual Safety Car period.
After the Monaco crash, Verstappen insisted that he accepted the blame only for that and the China incidents, saying: “This was together with China my mistake so, yes, it is of course not what you like to happen, but unfortunately it happens.” He said he couldn’t explain what was going wrong but did say: “We’ll look at it, see what we could have done better.”
Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko, though, said the incident was “very unnecessary” and added that all the incidents had a common cause. “He is not patient enough,” Marko said. “He wants always to show he is the fastest but the result is only when you cross the finish line. He needs to be more patient, judge the situations better.”
Marko said he would discuss the matter with Verstappen and team principal Christian Horner said he would sit down with Max to try and shift the momentum of his season.
“He’s very aware,” Horner said. “We talk weekly. What frustrates him is he’s working harder than ever and it feels like he is just trying a bit too hard at the moment. When you get into a spiral, you try harder and he needs to hit the reset button.”
Horner added: “Max arrived in F1 very quickly and he is doing his learning in a very public arena. Most guys will have gone through this in a lower formula and he is having to deal with it in a very public arena and I am sure he will emerge on the other side.”
Horner suggested Verstappen could do worse than learn from Ricciardo’s approach to racing. “He has a very good teacher in the car next door,” Horner said. “Max has an abundance of talent and he has had some harsh lessons this year. I think a modified approach will benefit him.
“But the only person who can address it and deal with it is Max. This weekend was very painful for him.”